It should probably be noted that The Kinks also have a song about a crossdressing husband named Dick: Out of the Wardrobe. While the lyrics definitely contain some dated terms (including the f-word), it is pro-crossdresser and pro-“live and let live.”
An excerpt: Betty Lou didn’t know what to do at first But she’s learning how to cope at last She’s got the best of both worlds And she’s really in a state of elation She says it helps their relationship She says a change is as good as a rest And their friends are finally coming 'round to their way of thinking She wears the trousers and smokes the pipe And he washes up She helps him wipe Cause when he puts on that dress He looks like a princess
He may have issue with the suggestion that killing Darth Vader would cause Luke to no longer have a job. That does, indeed, seem like a controversial take.
According to the Wikipedia article on the song, Ray Davies once went on a date with Candy Darling (of “Walk on the Wild Side” fame) while knowing all along that she was trans, so he was definitely OK with the idea.
Yes! Geeze, a lot of anger there. My post wasn’t something that deserved a “fucking” emphasis.
I mean, that yes, Lola may be a cis-gendered woman with a husky voice. There’s nothing in the song that dismisses that possibility. It’s a mixed up world, except for Lola. Especially if the singer, a naive sort, is afraid of getting picked up by a cross dressing men.
Which reminds me - this was 1966. The intent of the song was much more likely that Lola was a cross-dressing gay man, not a transgendered person. It wasn’t like there was a lot of transgendered awareness back then, except to make crude Renée Richards or Christine Jorgensen jokes. It’s highly unlikely the singer was dancing with a person that had gender reassignment, as opposed to just someone cross dressing.
But yeah, go back on your high horse and white knight something that isn’t being attacked.
Maybe I have a dirty mind but I’ve always thought the ‘I got down on my knees’ line meant he sealed the deal with Lola. What do people think he was doing? Praying?
"Lola is a song by the English rock band the Kinks, written by frontman Ray Davies for their 1970 album Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One
A time when the male sub culture Ray Davies was a part of was leaning hard into gender-ambiguous fashion. Glam was just months away. The song’s vibe is one of wonder, not disgust.
The last line is “I’m glad I’m a man and so is Lola” followed by Lola repeated over and over. That is not in any way a punchline about Lola’s gender identity.
Oh? Because I think Lola may actually be a woman, and doesn’t have to be transgendered to make the song work? That the song is deliberately ambiguous? Allrighty, then! Do you even know why you’re so angry? Can you say it without swearing?
Yes. that’s what I’m saying! Glam rock was not transgendered. It’s just “boys being girls”, to more or less quote the song. And combine that with androgynous women such as Twiggy and it is a crazy mixed up world.
Ray Davies has claimed that he was inspired to write “Lola” after Kinks manager Robert Wace spent a night in Paris dancing with a cross-dresser.[10] Davies said of the incident, “In his apartment, Robert had been dancing with this black woman, and he said, ‘I’m really onto a thing here.’ And it was okay until we left at six in the morning and then I said, ‘Have you seen the stubble?’ He said ‘Yeah’, but he was too pissed [intoxicated] to care, I think”.[11]
Drummer Mick Avory has offered an alternative explanation for the song’s lyrics, claiming that “Lola” was partially inspired by Avory’s frequenting of certain bars in West London.[12] Avory said:
We used to know this character called Michael McGrath. He used to hound the group a bit, because being called The Kinks did attract these sorts of people. He used to come down to Top of the Pops, and he was publicist for John Stephen’s shop in Carnaby Street. He used to have this place in Earl’s Court, and he used to invite me to all these drag queen acts and transsexual pubs. They were like secret clubs. And that’s where Ray [Davies] got the idea for ‘Lola’. When he was invited too, he wrote it while I was getting drunk.[9]
I do! It’s because you keep saying things like, “Lola may be an actual woman, and doesn’t have to be transgendered to make the song work.” Trying to create a distinction between trans women and “actual” women, as you’ve done twice now, is deeply offensive.
Except in 1970, there was no language to describe gender identity. “Lola is a ‘man’,” would have been about the only way to describe her then. Other than that, the song is very respectful towards Lola. She is referred to a “she” throughout the entire song.
Well, yes, but the whole point of Moby’s rant is that he is re-interpreting the song with modern sensibilities, a practice which is depressingly common today. That’s why people think he’s an idiot.
I think its possible to recognize that a song (or book/movie/whatever) might have been very progressive for its day, while still being uncomfortable with how the song hits in a modern context. Art has an emotional component that’s often not susceptible to being intellectualized away. You can recognize that something was remarkably accepting when it was written, while not being able to get past the emotional connotations of what it implies in a contemporary context.
Like, one can recognize that Huckleberry Finn is taking a very strong anti-racist position for the time in which it was written, while still being turned off by seeing the n-word multiple times per page. Someone can have this position without necessarily throwing Mark Twain out of the canon, or insisting that the text be bowdlerized. I don’t want to sign up for Rolling Stone, so I haven’t read the article, but it doesn’t sound like Moby is insisting that “Lola” be banned, or that Ray Davies is a bigot for writing it. He just can’t get over his modern associations with the song, which ruins his enjoyment of it.
I don’t sense any malice in what he was saying. I think he was just awkwardly trying to make a distinction between the possibility of Lola being biologically female vs trans woman.
Thanks. I did add cis-gendered in the second post, but some people have to be angry all the time. Especially as Lola is more likely a cross dressing man, rather than a transgendered person.